Couch



PATENTED FEB 16,1 904.

T. E. OBRIEN.

GOUGH.

. APPLIGATION nun FEB. 9, 1903.

N0 MGDBL.

edges of the article.

UNITED STATES Patented February 16; 1964. v

THOMAS E. OBRIEN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

' COUCH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 752,177, dated FebruarylG, 1904.

Application filed February 9, 1903. Serial No. 142,524. (Il'o model.)

To all whmn it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS E. OBRIEN, of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Couches, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to couches and other upholstered articles comprising an upper and lower fabric with interposed vertical furniture-springs in which the upper fabric is provided around its border with a flexible frame consisting of a wire extended around the fabric and attached to its edges. Such articles heretofore have been constructed with'an upper fabric of coiled wire having a border wire frame, the coils of the fabric being extended parallel with the flexible front and rear wires of said frame. The fabric has no rigidity and little or'no tensile yield transversely of the woven coils, and when so arranged relatively to said frame deflection of the fabric draws the flexible side wires too much toward each other and when sprung back affords no aid to the return of the flexible side wires and no outward support against exterior force or pressure so applied as to bend said flexible side wires inwardly. Consequently said wires in use are liable to be bent inwardly, so as to be upset and stay bent from their normal shape along the front and rear upper side F United States Patent No. 564,531, of July 21, 1896, to me shows a couch of this class whichhas additionally the.

flexible side wires of the border wire frame connected by what are there designated as transverselydisposed wires, which pass through the coils of the upper fabric and are secured at their ends to the flexible side wires of said frame by being turned one or more times around the same.

The object of my present improvement is to dispense with said transversely-disposed wires and so arrange the upper fabric relatively to said frame or the front and rear of the couch as to extend the coils of the woven fabric transversely of said frame or at right angles to its flexible front and rear rails, so that downward deflection of the fabric in use will stretch it between the flexible side wires of said frame and produce less bending of them inwardly or toward one another and also give increased horizontal resilience outwardly to the side upper edges of the couch. These effects are not produced by the coils of the upper fabric attached at their ends to the end members of the border wire frame of my said former patent in consequence of the great length of the coils extended lengthwise of the frame and the relative shortness of said end members, which are such that said members are not practically flexible in use as the side members are; nor does the use of such a couch require said flexible effects at the ends of said frame as distinguished from its sides in use at the front and rear of the couch. I have attained this object by the construction illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure l isa perspective of askeleton couch containing my improvement. Fig. 2 is a detail showing, in enlarged plan view, a fragment of the lower fabric at onecorner of the couch. Fig. 3 isa detail showing a similar view of the upper fabric.

In the drawings, A is the couch-frame; B, the lower fabric, which in this instance is a coilwire fabric having the intertwisted strand 5 of coil-wire extended longitudinally of the couch and the wire frame 6 extended all around the fabric and secured thereto, so as to keep it distended in a' level plane. This wire frame is secured to the couch-frame A by means of staples 5 driven over the wire of said frame.

C is the upper fabric, which is of intertwisted strands c of coil-Wires extended transversely of the couch-frame and provided with the wire frame 0, to the side wires of which the endsc of the coil-strands c are attached, the sides of the coils being attached to the end wires 0 of the said frame. The tensile yielding of this fabric is chiefly in the direction across the frame 0' and from front to rear of a the couch, so that the downward pressure of use upon the upper fabric will not draw the side wires of said frame by which the fabric is deflected downward from the plane of the frame inwardly to the same extent it would if the coil-strands were extended lengthwise of said frame and had their sides attached to the side rails of said frame along the front and rear of the couch. The coil-strands 0, extended lengthwise between the side wires of the frame with their ends attached thereto, are in their normal state of compression when the couch is not occupied, and hence will offer outward resistance all along the side wires of the said frame to any force applied horizontally against the upper, front, or rear edge of the couch to bend the side wires or either of them inward. In other words, the front of the couch, while capable of yielding inwardly, as before, is strengthened by the described arrangement of the strands of the top fabric relatively thereto and are made better able than before to resist the deforming influences suggested. A further advantage of extending the coil-strands of the upper fabric transversely of the wire frame 0 and from front to rear of the couch is that the fabric will conform more readily and better to any curvature, as seen at D, Fig. 1, of the said frame than if the strands were extended longitudinally of said frame.

The furniture-springs E are applied between the fabrics B and C and secured thereto in the ordinary way. It is contemplated that any of the ordinary supports for the bottom end of the furniture-springs may be used in substitution for the fabric B without departing from the principle of the improvement, which consists in a top frame for the front or front and rear upper edges of the article when said fabric and its marginal frame are supported by the fabric resting on the top of furniture-springs in manner shown. The skeleton; as shown, has the front and back upper edges both made yielding alike. The principle of the improvement, however, is applicable to a skeleton couch having only the front upper edge made to yield horizontally inward by the means shown. The skeleton is to have a top covering of cloth, secured in any usual manner to make the finished article.

Having thus fully described my invention, What I claim is 1. In an article of the class described the combination with coiled springs and a bottom support therefor of a top consisting of a frame provided with a flexible front rail adapted to yield-horizontally and vertically in use and a fabric of coiled wire within said frame and having its borders attached thereto, the fabric and frame being relatively arranged so that the coils of said fabric run at rightangles to said flexible front rail and have one end attached thereto, as specified.

2. In an article of the class described the combination with coiled springs and a bottom support therefor, of atop consisting of a frame provided with flexible front and rear rails adapted to yield horizontally and vertically in use and a fabric of coiled wire within said frame and having its border attached thereto, the fabric and frame being relatively arranged so that the coils of the fabric run at right angles to said flexible front and rear rails and have their ends attached thereto, as specified.

THOMAS E. OBRIEN.

Witnesses:

ANNIE M. ADAMS, HENRY D. LEVY. 

